In recent years, enterprises and government organizations have started
shifting their IT infrastructures to a cloud computing and
software-as-a-service model in an effort to lower costs and drive operational
efficiencies. With the shift toward less IT infrastructure management, cloud
services offer organizations a powerful way to increase their focus on core
business practices and focus less on managing IT. By conducting more and more
business through the cloud, organizations are also introducing a new set of
concerns when it comes to the security and privacy of data.
Leading analyst firms such as Forrester and Gartner have identified cloud
security as a major area of concern as organizations move toward increasing
the amount of data in the cloud. Primary concerns include the viability of
cloud vendors, user access, data privacy, regulatory compliance and data
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